Leaving Epitaph (16 page)

The seven men left the sheriff’s office by the back door. Shaye and his sons were armed with rifles they’d removed from their saddles. The local lawmen had shotguns from the office gun rack. Thomas went with Sheriff Holcomb to take care of the two men who were still sitting out in front of the saloon. Deputy Ray Winston paired up with Matthew to go around to the back door and get into the saloon that way. Deputy Will Strunk and James were going to go around to one side of the saloon and get in through a window, while Shaye went alone to the other side to do the same.

Thomas had to go completely around the building to come at the two men in front of the saloon without being seen by them. The sheriff, who would approach them more directly, gave him five minutes to do that. Thomas actually passed his brother and Will Strunk while they were working on a first floor window.

When he got to his assigned spot, he was able to see the sheriff approaching from the other side. The men there were supposed to be on watch, but they weren’t watching very well. From what Thomas could hear, they were bitching that they’d had to sit inside or outside this saloon all day long, and what the hell was the matter with those two damned brothers?

The sheriff sidled up on them before they knew it and spoke to them, getting their attention.

“Nice night to be sittin’ outside, ain’t it?”

Both men, startled, began to go for their guns.

“I wouldn’t do that,” Thomas said from behind them.

Both men froze. Thomas already had his gun out, and now Holcomb produced his.

“You fellas don’t know what you’re doin’,” one of the men said.

“Hopefully,” Holcomb said, “we’ll figure it out along the way. Right now I’m just gonna take your guns, so stand easy so my friend there doesn’t have to shoot you.”

It was the first time Thomas had ever held his gun on another man.

James and Will Strunk got the window open and slipped quietly inside the saloon. They found themselves in an office. Outside the office door, they could hear men talking.

Now they just had to wait.

Meanwhile, Matthew and Ray Winston slipped the back door open and entered. They found themselves in a hallway that led to a curtained doorway. Beyond that doorway was the saloon.

Aaron shook off the punch from Ethan, which didn’t have much sting behind it, but as Morales had predicted, brought forth a look of respect.

“You ready to tally?” Aaron asked.

Ethan wiped blood from his face with his sleeve and said, “Yeah.”

Aaron went outside and shouted downstairs, “Morales and Branch, come on up.”

There was a low roof on the other side of the building, and Shaye was able to climb up onto it and gain access to a window. He managed to slide it open and climb in, finding himself in a room with a bed.

He didn’t know that in the room right next to him four men were counting money out onto a poker table.

Shaye opened the door to the room as quietly as he could and stepped out. He was on a balcony overlooking the saloon. There were easily a dozen men or more downstairs. He couldn’t get a clear count. He hoped the entire gang was all there.

He waited for the first move to be made.

James cracked the door to the office open and peered out. He also could see many men, but could not count. No one had any way of knowing if all the men were present.

He and Will waited.

Matthew and Ray peered through the curtain. They could see plenty of men with guns, but could not get a count. They waited impatiently to make their move.

The first move was to come from Thomas and Sheriff Holcomb. They had relieved the two men of their guns, and now they turned them to face the bat-wing doors. They intended to use their prisoners as cover as they entered the saloon.

“If one of you fellas moves wrong,” Holcomb said, “we’ll put a bullet in both your backs? Got it?”

“We got it,” one of them said, “but you’re gonna be sorry. There’s a lot of men with guns in there.”

“How many men?” Holcomb asked.

“You’ll find out.”

“If they open fire, you’ll be the first to go,” Thomas said.

Holcomb looked at Thomas, who nodded and said, “Let’s do this.”

Holcomb and Thomas each pushed their man through the bat-wing doors, then entered right behind them.

“This is the sheriff!” Holcomb shouted. “Keep your hands away from your guns.”

The thirteen men in the room froze momentarily. The four men they would have taken orders from were not there. As a result, they had to make their own individual decisions.

At the sound of Holcomb’s voice, the others made their moves.

James and Deputy Strunk opened the office door and stepped out, guns in their hands. James’s heart was pounding, and he tried to ignore it.

Matthew and Deputy Winston stepped through the curtained doorway with their guns out. Matthew’s mouth was dry. He still wasn’t sure that he was with his father and brothers on what they were going to do, but this seemed
okay to him. After all, they were acting with the local law.

Shaye stood up straight and pointed his gun at the men on the first floor.

“Play it smart and lay down your guns,” he called out. “You’re surrounded!”

Red Hackett looked up and saw Shaye looking down on them with his gun out. He didn’t recognize the man, or any of the others, but he knew two things—they were lawmen, and he and his
compadres
outnumbered them.

“Surrounded, my ass!” he shouted, and went for his gun.

That was all the others needed. They all went for their weapons, and the shooting started….

“What the hell!” Ethan said.

He started for the door with Ben Branch in tow. Morales looked at Aaron, who shook his head. From the sounds outside the room, all hell had broken loose.

“Ethan, wait!” Aaron shouted.

“What for?”

“The law’s made their move.”

“But there was only supposed to be three of them.”

“Sounds like a lot more than that to me,” Aaron said, “and if they got the drop on our men, it’s gonna be bad.”

“So what do we do?” Ethan asked.

Aaron waved his arm at the stacks of money on the table. “We pack this money up and go out that window,” he said. “There’s a roof out there. We can make it to the street and get our horses from the livery.”

“But—”

“There’s a lot of money here,” Aaron said, “and a lot more if it’s only split four ways.”

Ethan hesitated.

“What do we do, Ethan?” Branch asked.

Morales was ready to draw his gun to back Aaron Langer’s play. He’d leave Ethan to his own brother, and he would take out Branch, if it came to that.

“Ethan,” Aaron said. “What do we do?”

The shooting in the saloon was getting impossibly loud. It sounded like a war.

“Pack it up, Aaron,” Ethan finally said, “and let’s get the hell out of here.”

The lawmen were outnumbered, but they had the outlaws outgunned. Holcomb, Strunk, and Winston all let loose with their shotguns, both barrels, and then put their pistols to use. Men cried out and blood splashed onto the bar, the floor, and the walls.

Shaye picked off several men from the balcony with his Winchester—levering and firing, levering and firing—before they knew what hit them.

Matthew and James put their rifles to use from the floor level, then pressed their handguns into action. There was no hesitation from either of them. This was clearly a kill or be killed situation.

Thomas, preferring his handgun to his rifle, used that weapon first, and didn’t switch to the rifle until his hammer fell on an empty chamber. Like his brothers, he never hesitated, but unlike them, he was calm, which surprised him. Not only was he calm, but he was deadly accurate,
and every bullet he fired slammed into somebody’s flesh.

The outlaws were confused, unsure where to shoot first. With no direction, they were easy pickings, even though there were more of them. A couple jumped behind the bar, where the poor bartender was cowering, but they were visible from the balcony and Shaye took care of them.

From his vantage point, Shaye could see his sons in action. As proud of them as he was, he was actually watching to make sure they didn’t get hurt. He knew he was making a mistake—possibly a deadly one. In watching out for his sons, he was leaving himself open, but this was the first time they had been involved in a gun-fight. If one of them panicked, he wanted to be able to help them.

He saw a bullet strike Will Strunk, who was standing next to James, and the deputy went down. To James’s credit, he just kept on shooting.

As Shaye had taught them, his sons went to one knee, or to cover, in order to reload.

In Thomas’s case, he upturned a table and ducked behind it.

James dropped to a knee, as did Matthew, but Matthew was still a big target.

Shaye did his best to protect his sons with his rifle, and then with his pistol, until the room filled with so much gun smoke that he couldn’t see them.

He was about to rush to the stairs when the shooting abruptly stopped.

His trained ear picked up the sounds of men moaning, empty shells striking the floor as some reloaded, rifle levers being worked and shotguns being broken over to reload.

He didn’t wait for the smoke to clear, but headed for the stairs. Halfway down, he was able to see again. He anxiously sought out his sons.

Thomas was standing up behind the table he’d overturned, calmly reloading.

James was crouched over the fallen deputy.

Matthew was still down on one knee, but he held his gun at the ready. Next to him, Deputy Winston was holding his hand over a wound he’d sustained to his arm.

Sheriff Holcomb was moving among the fallen outlaws. There didn’t seem to be any left standing, but from the sound they were making, quite a few of them were still alive.

“Pa,” Thomas said, still calm, “you’re hit.”

“What?” Shaye looked down at himself and saw blood on his side. He hadn’t felt it, but a bullet had plowed a furrow in his left side and kept on going. He probed it with his fingers, then looked up at Thomas.

“It’s not bad,” he said. “The bullet’s not there. You boys all right?”

“I’m, fine, Pa,” James said, “but the deputy’s dead.”

“Damn!” Holcomb said.

“Sorry about your man, Sheriff,” Shaye said. “Looks like your other one is hit but okay.”

“I’ll live,” Winston said.

Shaye moved in among the fallen men and began checking them with Holcomb. He saw two who were alive, but blood bubbles on their lips said not for long.

“We need one man to question,” he said aloud. “They’re not all here. The Langers aren’t here.”

“There’s one over here, Pa,” Thomas said.

Shaye went over and stood next to his son, and was soon joined by the sheriff. They looked down at the fallen man, who was holding his hand to his side and glaring up at them. His wound seemed similar to Shaye’s, except that the blood was deeper red and there was more of it. The bullet was still there.

“Pa,” Matthew said, coming up next to him, “we gotta get a doctor over here.”

“Your son is right,” Holcomb said.

“If you talk,” Shaye said to the man, “we’ll get you to a doctor.”

“Fuck you.”

“Where’s your boss?”

“Go to hell,” Red Hackett said. He’d started the whole fracas by going for his gun, and he was still alive. Shaye had no idea of the irony involved, though.

“The Langers left you here to get killed while they took off with the money.”

Hackett just continued to glare.

“The money’s not here, is it?”

“Get me a doctor.”

“Where’d they go?”

“I don’t know!” Hackett shouted. “They went upstairs a little before you hit us. Get me a doctor!”

“I’ll get the doc,” Holcomb said.

“Upstairs?” Shaye said, looking up. “Damn!”

He ran for the stairs, followed closely by his sons.

Shaye and his sons checked all the upstairs rooms. There was evidence that the Langers had been in one of them. On the floor, left behind by accident, was a twenty dollar gold piece. Shaye knew that part of the haul taken from the bank in Epitaph had included gold coins.

“The livery,” he said.

He ran back downstairs, again followed by his sons. The sheriff had not returned with the doctor, and Deputy Winston was standing guard over the fallen man still holding his arm.

“Where’s the closest livery?” Shaye asked.

“South end of town,” Winston said, pointing. “Go outside, turn left and keep going.”

“Tell the sheriff we’ll be back.”

They all went out the door.

When they reached the livery, the doors were wide open and some horses were wandering about. Apparently, the Langers, in a hurry to
saddle their own mounts, had let some of the others loose.

“We gonna follow them, Pa?” Matthew asked.

“Not in the dark, Matthew,” Shaye said. “We’ll track them in the morning.”

“We don’t know how many there were,” James said.

“Ethan and Aaron for sure,” Shaye said. “If the doctor keeps that other man alive, maybe he’ll tell us.”

They went into the livery, rounded up some of the loose horses, and put them in stalls.

“A lot of horses,” Shaye said. “Most of the gang must have boarded them here.”

They left the livery and closed the doors behind them.

“We better get back,” Thomas said.

“Before we do,” Shaye said, “I want to tell you boys how proud I am of you. You stood up like men tonight, and none of you backed down.”

Matthew and James looked embarrassed.

“Pa,” Thomas said, “let’s go back to the saloon. The doc’s gotta take a look at you too.”

“All right, Thomas,” Shaye said. “Let’s go.”

Outside of town the Langers slowed their horses, then reined them in. Morales and Branch stopped as well.

“What the hell happened back there?” Aaron demanded.

“You said there were only three lawmen,” Ethan pointed out.

“Maybe they recruited some help,” Branch said.

“And maybe you were trailed here from…what town did you hit in Texas, anyway?” Aaron asked.

“A place called Epitaph,” Ethan said. “I never heard of it before, but—”

“Epitaph?” Aaron said. “You robbed the bank in Epitaph?”

“That’s right,” Ethan said. “It was a good haul.”

“Did you bother to find out who the sheriff of Epitaph was before you hit it?”

“Well, no, but—”

“Do you remember the name Shaye Daniels, Ethan?”

“Shaye…yeah, from a long time ago. He was, uh…”

“Shaye Daniels was the best man with a gun I ever rode with,” Aaron said. “I wanted him to be my partner, but he walked away.”

“And he ended up sheriff of Epitaph, Texas?” Morales asked.

“That’s right, as Dan Shaye.”

“Madre de Dios.”

“How do you know?” Ethan asked.

“Because I kept track of him, that’s how,” Aaron said. “I’ll bet he tracked you all the way here.”

“Why would he do that?” Ethan asked.

“You killed a woman,” Aaron said. “Even fifteen or so years ago he had his own code. God, if that was Danny Shaye back there…”

They waited for Aaron to finish, but he didn’t. He just gigged his horse and they moved on their way in the dark.